When a call is forwarded to a voicemail system, the caller often hears a message that indicates the called party is not available and requests the caller to leave a message. Many systems may also allow a user to manually set an alternate greeting for his or her voicemail account. For example, the caller may hear a message such as “John is on vacation and will return on October 22.” These specialized greetings however require manual configuration. As a result, the greeting will not be updated unless the called party remembers to change the message as his or her status changes and makes an effort to keep the message updated.
Furthermore, when a voicemail user accesses his or her voicemail account to listen to recorded voicemail messages, the user often attempts to return calls to individuals who have left voicemail messages for the user. The availability of the party that left the voicemail message may have changed since that individual left the message. For example, the party may have gone to a meeting and may no longer be available to speak with the user. As a result, returning the phone call at that time may not be productive, but the user may have no way of knowing this.